Review: I Need Romance 3

Review: I Need Romance 3

As I live watched this drama I also live squeed. Which could be classified as reviews, because they do contain spoilers. However, mostly it is just a rambling of my feels and thoughts while I watched each episode.

I went into this drama eager, excited, and expecting too much. First, the Noona in me was over the moon at the idea of live watching a Noona Dongsaeng Romance. As we all know I’m a tad obsessed with this trope. However, I was also excited by the fact it was another installment in the I Need Romance franchise. I loved the first one so very much, but haven’t seen the second one. I had hoped that the third installment would have the same edgy, fresh, and realistic view of romance (with a healthy dose of intimacy/love/fun) that the first installment had. Thirdly, I really was looking forward to the story from having read loads of articles about the show.

Sadly, this drama was a disappointment to me. On many levels. Don’t get me wrong, there were plenty of lovely things within the show, but those good points were not enough to save it for me.

What did I want from this show?

1) Focus on relationships in all their forms. Friendship/Co-Worker/Employee/Lover.

2) A Noona Romance to blow away all other Noona Romances.

3) A fun story that focused on relationships in a real way like I Need Romance 1 had done.

Unfortunately I didn’t get any of that. The relationship growth all seemed forced or nothing happened at all until the very last episode where the writers crammed it into a single conversation that made no sense to the rest of the scene. This Noona Romance is my least favorite Noona Romance that I’ve watched thus far. This show was not fun to watch, there was nothing of that vitality or edgy approach to story telling that I had loved in I Need Romance 1.

I couldn’t connect to Joo Yeon, she was an unlikable character throughout the entire show. She was cold, robotic, and wishy-washy. I just could not find it in me to feel anything for her except annoyance. The second male lead was so boring and two dimensional that I could have slept through his scenes and not missed all that much. Wan was so shameless in his adoration and love for Joo Yeon that I felt embarrassed for him most of the time. There is a huge difference between puppy love and being disrespectful to yourself in order to love someone else. To me, it felt like Wan did not respect himself enough to stand up for himself and let Joo Yeon walk all over him for every episode except the last three. That isn’t adorable puppy love, that is just embarrassing.

What did I like? Well the OST. I loved it so much that I will be buying it. Wow, the music was amazing. But isn’t it sad when the music is the thing I loved the most from the entire show? I also loved Min Jung and her lover. Their story was poignant and addressed some difficult issues, it was interesting and I looked forward to their screen time very much. Also I loved the Dongsaengs Hee Jae and Woo Young so much I could have watched an entire show about just them and been perfectly happy!

Episode 16 was good, they wrapped up all the story tangents nicely and everyone got a happy-ish ending. Even though they closed the series well, I was underwhelmed emotionally. The last episode did not feel like a climactic finish, it was just another episode. But a slightly better episode than some of the episodes prior to it.

In conclusion, I wasn’t impressed with this installment in I Need Romance. If I hadn’t committed to reviewing each episode for the blog I would have dropped the show around episode 8.

The Noona Romance is close to my heart, most of you who know me in the blogverse and dramaland know. With the help of friends I’ve created The Noona Meter. A rating system that focuses only on the Noona Romance within the show. To help provide the most balanced views on the Noona Romance I’ve included polls so you amazing people can vote! You know, to keep the ratings a little more objective than I can manage on my own. To see what each category means take a peek at this article.

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8 thoughts on “Review: I Need Romance 3”

I also had too much expectations for it, the first 6 episodes were my favorite though… I’m still behind because I’m slowly losing the interest to watch after KSY fell in love with NGM character. NGM is such an underrated actor and I really hope he will pick a better character next time! He’s quite a scene stealer in Can you hear my heart and One Fine day but I think sweet potato is definitely the better guy in this drama. Anyways, I’ve not yet watched till the last episode so I’ll reserve my final judgement for now.

I agree, the first 6 episodes were great. I actually enjoyed it until episode 8 and then… I really had to force myself to watch and write. It was a struggle. Honestly I would have dropped this after episode 8 so if it hasn’t grabbed you in the feels then I honestly say that you aren’t missing much if you drop it or at least put it on the back burner.

I agree with you in regards to Wan. I really felt embarrassed for him way too many times. I cannot fathom how he could do such things. I especially suffered intense second hand embarrassment when he saw Joo Yeon almost kissing sunbae. Like when he shouted at her, OMG Wan, just stop.

I expected so much from the series, too, because I love SungJoon very much. But I think this is his drama character that I loved the least. By the middle of the show, I was more invested in the MinJung’s pregnancy storyline. It was cute, and even her partner gives a more refreshing story than our main ones.

I’m so sad because there’s so much wasted potential, but yes, the OST is lovely.🙂

Please accept my sincerest apologies for taking so long to reply. I’m currently dealing with an injury which makes it difficult to sit at the computer for long periods of time. I am truly appreciative of your time and the fact you’ve commented here! Thank you for your patience!

Exactly! At first it was cute and puppy love-ish, but then it just became embarrassing and difficult to watch. I really just cringed whenever Wan was on the screen. Which is totally unfortunate because he was lovely to look at.

Me too! I expected so much and wanted so much and yet it didn’t deliver. I agree I was really interested in Min Jung and really lost my ability to care about the main OTP.

I think I ended up liking this more than you did (does it matter that I never saw either of the other INR series?). While Joo Yeon’s as a character didn’t bother me that much, I do think it took her waaaay too long, even in Drama-Land terms, to figure out that Sweet Potato was pretty much the Perfect Guy right in front of her on a platter. I mean, seriously lady, are you blind? And the second lead was not even… well, just not even. Not at one point did I think, “Well, he’s perfectly acceptable too but he’s not ‘The One’ for our heroine,” like I would with almost any other second lead. The whole time I was just like, “Nope, I don’t like him at all.” And I was not very invested in the side couples at all– either the 2 coworkers or Shing-Shing’s “frenemy.” But maybe I give this drama more points on the power of Sweet Potato alone? Because, damn, he is cute in this. When I think of this show I remember all the cute Sweet Potato/Shing-Shing scenes and forget pretty much everything else. Wouldn’t be the first time I mentally edited a show after the fact!

Please accept my sincerest apologies for taking so long to reply. I’m currently dealing with an injury which makes it difficult to sit at the computer for long periods. I am truly appreciative of your time and the fact you’ve commented here! Thank you for your patience!

I respect that! There are a bazillion stories out there and not all of them are going to be liked by the same people. We can still totally be friends hehe. I’ve seen INR 1 but not INR 2, at some point I’ll probably watch INR 2 just to complete the set.

Omo, yeah she took way to long to figure herself out. Sweet Potato couldn’t have been more visible to her and yet she never really saw him. That second lead, I don’t think I’ve disliked a second male lead before. But man, I really couldn’t stand him! He was a robot without feelings or his own thoughts, totally not likable at all.

There are quite a few dramas that I’ve watched where I’ve edited them mentally to make it a story that I love! Nothing wrong with that I think, its our watching experience we can do with it what we want!